Wrinkle, wrinkle, little polymer

Scientists have developed a cheap and easy way to create specific patterns of tiny wrinkles on the surface of a flexible and commonly used polymer—a technique that could be used to fabricate an assortment of microdevices.

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the soft polymer that's the main ingredient in Silly Putty, also comes in transparent, pliable sheets in which some of the material's long-chain molecules are chemically cross-linked, says John W. Hutchinson, a mechanical engineer at Harvard University. He and his colleagues found that when they irradiated a 3-millimeter-thick sheet of PDMS with a beam of gallium ions, the material became a wrinkled, glasslike skin about 25 nanometers thick.

This article is available only to subscribing members. Join SSP today or Log in.